Genesis 35
Jacob feared now they would all be killed. Then God said to him, “Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there.” Many years before, God had spoken to Jacob at Bethel, at the time when he deceived his brother, and left home and was running away.
There Jacob had seen a ladder to heaven with angels. How good were God’s promises to Jacob then! But Jacob had gone his own way, not by faith, so sorrow came. God had faithfully blessed him, yet Jacob had never truly trusted God as he should.
Jacob got up at once to go to Bethel, as God said. Now he thought of the idols in his family, unclean things; he knew these were not fit for God to see. So he said, “Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments: And let us arise, and go up to Bethel; and I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went.”
How sad, to find in our home things which do not please God. Perhaps we, or our wife, or children may have them. “Little children, keep yourselves from idols” (1 John 5:21). Besides the idols of gold, silver, wood, stone or paper, there may be idols inside our hearts—money or knowledge, or the idols of drinking, eating, and pleasures—anything that takes the place of God in our eyes. God wants us always to put Him first.
When Jacob wanted to build an altar to God, or if we Christians want to be near God, then all that would defile our lives must be put away. If we are dirty with idols, what shall we do? “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to Thy Word” (Psa. 119:9; 2 Cor. 7:1). If unclean, we must go to God and tell Him. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).
Jacob’s mother’s old nurse had gone up to Bethel with him, and she died there. They left Bethel, and when near to Bethlehem, Jacob’s wife Rachel had a baby boy, named Benoni, “Son of my sorrow.” And then she died. But Jacob called him Benjamin, “Son of my right hand.”
For the Jews, the Lord Jesus is “The Son of their Sorrow,” because when they crucified Him, God drove them from their land, and they were scattered. But for God His Father, the Lord Jesus is “The Son of His right hand.”
Jacob saw his father Isaac again; Joseph and his brothers saw their grandfather now for the first time. Truly, God kept His promise to Jacob. Later on Isaac died, and Jacob and Esau buried him in the cave with Abraham. Some day, they will rise up to that heavenly city which Abraham looked for.